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Alive To Wonder: Celebrating The Influence Of C.S. Lewis
Alive to Wonder: Celebrating the Influence of C. S. Lewisis a collection of extended excerpts from John Piper's corpus where Lewis's fingerprints are most vividly seen, including a significant introduction from Piper specially written for this project. Piper calls it "the immeasurable moment" - that instance in reading when we come across a sentence or phrase that unleashes a new glimpse of truth. The lights go on. We read it and reread it. We're gripped to see more. While it's an experience that can happen when reading any good author, many would testify that it abounds when reading C.S. Lewis. Undoubtedly, this has been the case for Piper. Even a cursory reading of Piper's most foundational books shows Lewis's influence. From the deep truths of Christian Hedonism to the good interpretive deed of valuing an author's intention, Lewis-thought is there. And in this fiftieth year since Lewis's death, Piper expresses his profound thankfulness in the form of this new ebook
77 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2013
13 people are currently reading
255 people want to read
About the author
John Piper
609 books4,658 followersJohn Piper is founder and teacher of desiringGod.org and chancellor of Bethlehem College & Seminary. For 33 years, he served as senior pastor at Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota.
He grew up in Greenville, South Carolina, and studied at Wheaton College, Fuller Theological Seminary (B.D.), and the University of Munich (D.theol.). For six years, he taught Biblical Studies at Bethel College in St. Paul, Minnesota, and in 1980 accepted the call to serve as pastor at Bethlehem.
John is the author of more than 50 books and more than 30 years of his preaching and teaching is available free at desiringGod.org. John and his wife, Noel, have four sons, one daughter, and twelve grandchildren.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
He grew up in Greenville, South Carolina, and studied at Wheaton College, Fuller Theological Seminary (B.D.), and the University of Munich (D.theol.). For six years, he taught Biblical Studies at Bethel College in St. Paul, Minnesota, and in 1980 accepted the call to serve as pastor at Bethlehem.
John is the author of more than 50 books and more than 30 years of his preaching and teaching is available free at desiringGod.org. John and his wife, Noel, have four sons, one daughter, and twelve grandchildren.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
June 6, 2020
Excellent thoughts on the important thinking of evangelicalism's non-evangelical patron saint. A lot of it was readings from Piper's work elsewhere, but arranged really compellingly along a great train of thought. Particularly good were the reflections on 1 Timothy 4 and what it means for the Christian to enjoy the created order.
November 23, 2015
Some chapters were worth four and a half stars. But the long penultimate chapter dragged on with little mention of Lewis. This material was probably good in its original book, but in a book celebrating the influence of CS Lewis it seemed less interesting.
January 21, 2024
Alive to wonder is the perfect name for a book about C.S. Lewis, but this book isn’t really about Lewis at all. This is snippets of Piper’s books that have a slight mention of Lewis from time to time. I appreciated the mentions of Lewis and also G.K. Chesterton, but it reminded me that I don’t enjoy Piper’s writings and his need to defend his theological position. I also disagree with his perspective on the need to fight for joy and wonder. When we give up the need to fight and simply rest in God, it’s there we experience God’s grace, wonder and joy.
November 24, 2014
This is basically a collection of Piper's writings on C.S. Lewis--all taken from other books, essays, or lectures.
December 25, 2013
A fantastic collection of Piper's writings showing how C. S. Lewis has influenced his thinking (not necessarily his doctrine, and he points out why).
March 28, 2023
Brief overview about some of the ways Lewis' writings have affected Piper. Each chapter is just a section of Piper's writing from one of his various books. Well edited and if you go into it knowing what to expect, it is an enjoyable and helpful book with some great quotes from Piper and many from Lewis and others that Piper helpfully shines light on. This all further helped me understand that one cannot love and delight in God too much nor can one, provided God remain supreme in our affection, love the Giver's gifts too much. Love for the gifts is a means, when God remain supreme, of enjoying in delighting and honoring God (provided we order these loves rightly - ie. don't love your hobbies more than your kids, etc).
A Dozen Great Quotes
1. the world is a book to be read. And few people could read like Lewis
2. An author should never conceive himself as bringing into existence beauty or wisdom which did not exist before, but simply and solely as trying to embody in terms of his own art some reflection of eternal Beauty and Wisdom. (Quoting Lewis)
3. Humility is happy to discover that the greatness of God consigns us forever to the position of needy in relation to him. We don’t work for him. He works for us.
4. Friendship is two or more people engaging in a kind of corporate self-forgetfulness. Their focus is on something outside the group.
5. Need-love … makes a main ingredient in man’s highest, healthiest, and most realistic spiritual condition. A very strange corollary follows. Man approaches God most nearly when he is in one sense least like God. For what can be more unlike than fullness and need, sovereignty and humility, righteousness and penitence, limitless power and a cry for help? This paradox staggered me when I first ran into it; it also wrecked all my previous attempts to write about love. (Quoting Lewis)
6. There is always more to see in what I see. There is always wonder. There is always something to be astonished about. There is mental health in learning to look at a tree or a cloud or a nose and marvel that it is what it is...When you are being helped to see what you’ve always looked at all your life and never seen, it is absolutely revolutionary.
7. He gave me an intense sense of the “realness” of things: to wake up in the morning and be aware of the firmness of the mattress, the warmth of the sun rays, the sound of the clock ticking, the sheer being of things (“quiddity” as he calls it). He helped me become alive to life. He helped me see what is there in the world—things which if we didn’t have, we would pay a million dollars to have, but having them, we ignore.
8. God is not worshiped where He is not treasured and enjoyed. Praise is not an alternative to joy, but the expression of joy. Not to enjoy God is to dishonor Him.
9. Endeavor to promote spiritual appetites by laying yourself in the way of allurement … .There is no such thing as excess in our taking of this spiritual food. There is no such virtue as temperance in spiritual feasting. (Quoting Edwards)
10. Provided the thing is in itself right, the more one likes it and the less one has to “try to be good,” the better. A perfect man would never act from sense of duty; he’d always want the right thing more than the wrong one. Duty is only a substitute for love (of God and of other people), like a crutch, which is a substitute for a leg. Most of us need the crutch at times; but of course it’s idiotic to use the crutch when our own legs (our own loves, tastes, habits, etc.) can do the journey on their own! (Quoting Lewis)
11. Christ frees us from self-preoccupation and gives us—yes, only very gradually—a childlikeness that can see the sheer wonder of the staggering strangeness of the ordinary.
12. To those who submit gladly to the truth of God about themselves as sinners, and about Christ as the Savior, and about the Holy Spirit as the Sanctifier, and about God the Father as Creator, to them sex and food are sanctified. That is, they are pure. They are not unclean idols competing for our affections, which belong supremely to God. They are instead pure partners in the revelation of God’s glory. They are beams of his goodness along which the pure in heart see God (Matthew 5:8).
A Dozen Great Quotes
1. the world is a book to be read. And few people could read like Lewis
2. An author should never conceive himself as bringing into existence beauty or wisdom which did not exist before, but simply and solely as trying to embody in terms of his own art some reflection of eternal Beauty and Wisdom. (Quoting Lewis)
3. Humility is happy to discover that the greatness of God consigns us forever to the position of needy in relation to him. We don’t work for him. He works for us.
4. Friendship is two or more people engaging in a kind of corporate self-forgetfulness. Their focus is on something outside the group.
5. Need-love … makes a main ingredient in man’s highest, healthiest, and most realistic spiritual condition. A very strange corollary follows. Man approaches God most nearly when he is in one sense least like God. For what can be more unlike than fullness and need, sovereignty and humility, righteousness and penitence, limitless power and a cry for help? This paradox staggered me when I first ran into it; it also wrecked all my previous attempts to write about love. (Quoting Lewis)
6. There is always more to see in what I see. There is always wonder. There is always something to be astonished about. There is mental health in learning to look at a tree or a cloud or a nose and marvel that it is what it is...When you are being helped to see what you’ve always looked at all your life and never seen, it is absolutely revolutionary.
7. He gave me an intense sense of the “realness” of things: to wake up in the morning and be aware of the firmness of the mattress, the warmth of the sun rays, the sound of the clock ticking, the sheer being of things (“quiddity” as he calls it). He helped me become alive to life. He helped me see what is there in the world—things which if we didn’t have, we would pay a million dollars to have, but having them, we ignore.
8. God is not worshiped where He is not treasured and enjoyed. Praise is not an alternative to joy, but the expression of joy. Not to enjoy God is to dishonor Him.
9. Endeavor to promote spiritual appetites by laying yourself in the way of allurement … .There is no such thing as excess in our taking of this spiritual food. There is no such virtue as temperance in spiritual feasting. (Quoting Edwards)
10. Provided the thing is in itself right, the more one likes it and the less one has to “try to be good,” the better. A perfect man would never act from sense of duty; he’d always want the right thing more than the wrong one. Duty is only a substitute for love (of God and of other people), like a crutch, which is a substitute for a leg. Most of us need the crutch at times; but of course it’s idiotic to use the crutch when our own legs (our own loves, tastes, habits, etc.) can do the journey on their own! (Quoting Lewis)
11. Christ frees us from self-preoccupation and gives us—yes, only very gradually—a childlikeness that can see the sheer wonder of the staggering strangeness of the ordinary.
12. To those who submit gladly to the truth of God about themselves as sinners, and about Christ as the Savior, and about the Holy Spirit as the Sanctifier, and about God the Father as Creator, to them sex and food are sanctified. That is, they are pure. They are not unclean idols competing for our affections, which belong supremely to God. They are instead pure partners in the revelation of God’s glory. They are beams of his goodness along which the pure in heart see God (Matthew 5:8).
March 28, 2025
I like this book where Piper talks about Lewis. I really loved Chapter 6, where he talks about the following sentence that I extracted for a conversation with the AI about the book:
"Piper suggests that artists—poets, painters, musicians, and writers—possess an exceptional sensitivity to perceive and reflect God uniquely. He sees in them a capacity to capture the traces of divine glory in the physical world and express them in ways that awaken the soul. In this context, he does not say artists are inherently more spiritual. Still, their gift for observation and creation allows them to reveal aspects of God—His beauty, His power, His goodness—that might go unnoticed by others. For Piper, this fits perfectly with his idea of enjoying God through physical things: art, as an expression of the created, can serve as a bridge to the Creator."
"Piper suggests that artists—poets, painters, musicians, and writers—possess an exceptional sensitivity to perceive and reflect God uniquely. He sees in them a capacity to capture the traces of divine glory in the physical world and express them in ways that awaken the soul. In this context, he does not say artists are inherently more spiritual. Still, their gift for observation and creation allows them to reveal aspects of God—His beauty, His power, His goodness—that might go unnoticed by others. For Piper, this fits perfectly with his idea of enjoying God through physical things: art, as an expression of the created, can serve as a bridge to the Creator."
September 29, 2018
This book helped me how C.S. Lewis, despite his errors in theology, can be of great help to my thinking and growth in the Christian life, especially when it comes to fighting for joy in God and giving glory to Him.
January 13, 2020
Mostly good but a bit wordy in parts for me, but I could blame this on my lack of deeper reading. There is a chapter, the longest among them that it more about Spurgeon than Lewis, which was odd. Otherwise a good read!
May 24, 2021
I liked the introduction, but the rest of the book was just excerpts from other parts of Piper's books. Piper was trying to show how Lewis influenced his own Christian hedonistic view. I wish he wrote this fresh and make the connections and influence more clear.
March 15, 2015
Read the free epub. Interesting, cheerful read. I love to be reminded of the best in Lewis!
Nothing but God exists “for its own sake.”
Lewis devoted his life not to creating reality, but to seeing it and saying it well.
An author should never conceive himself as bringing into existence beauty or wisdom which did not exist before, but simply and solely as trying to embody in terms of his own art some reflection of eternal Beauty and Wisdom.
Humility is happy to discover that the greatness of God consigns us forever to the position of needy in relation to him. We don’t work for him. He works for us.
Lewis’s meditation in a toolshed…
I was standing today in the dark toolshed. The sun was shining outside and through the crack at the top of the door there came a sunbeam. From where I stood that beam of light, with the specks of dust floating in it, was the most striking thing in the place. Everything else was almost pitch-black. … Then I moved, so that the beam fell on my eyes. Instantly the whole previous picture vanished. I saw no toolshed, and (above all) no beam. Instead I saw, framed in the irregular cranny at the top of the door, green leaves moving on the branches of a tree outside and beyond that, 90 odd million miles away, the sun. Looking along the beam, and looking at the beam are very different experiences.
Lewis says,
To be sovereign of the universe is no great matter to God. … We must keep always before our eyes that vision of Lady Julian’s in which God carried in His hand a little object like a nut, and that nut was “all that is made.” God, who needs nothing, loves into existence wholly superfluous creatures in order that He may love and perfect them.78
Nothing but God exists “for its own sake.”
Lewis devoted his life not to creating reality, but to seeing it and saying it well.
An author should never conceive himself as bringing into existence beauty or wisdom which did not exist before, but simply and solely as trying to embody in terms of his own art some reflection of eternal Beauty and Wisdom.
Humility is happy to discover that the greatness of God consigns us forever to the position of needy in relation to him. We don’t work for him. He works for us.
Lewis’s meditation in a toolshed…
I was standing today in the dark toolshed. The sun was shining outside and through the crack at the top of the door there came a sunbeam. From where I stood that beam of light, with the specks of dust floating in it, was the most striking thing in the place. Everything else was almost pitch-black. … Then I moved, so that the beam fell on my eyes. Instantly the whole previous picture vanished. I saw no toolshed, and (above all) no beam. Instead I saw, framed in the irregular cranny at the top of the door, green leaves moving on the branches of a tree outside and beyond that, 90 odd million miles away, the sun. Looking along the beam, and looking at the beam are very different experiences.
Lewis says,
To be sovereign of the universe is no great matter to God. … We must keep always before our eyes that vision of Lady Julian’s in which God carried in His hand a little object like a nut, and that nut was “all that is made.” God, who needs nothing, loves into existence wholly superfluous creatures in order that He may love and perfect them.78
September 8, 2022
Not my favorite Piper book. A lot of the chapters are sections of other books Piper has written. Maybe that's the reason that at times it felt "superfluous".
February 5, 2015
Great little book encouraging the Christian life through gleanings from the life and work of C.S. Lewis. Piper confesses Lewis's many downfalls and errors and does not excuse them, but points out that on major, crucial doctrine, Lewis was orthodox. Would we be wise enough to look past his shortcomings, just like we all have many, to learn from the wondrous things that Lewis did have to offer.
His was a rare mind. His thoughts on the pleasures and delights of man from "Weight of Glory" and "Reflections on the Psalms" (chapter: a few words about praise) were enough to propel Piper to his wondrous ability to explain what he calls "Christian Hedonism", expounding on the catechism 'the chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever', stating that 'God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him'. Is that not the heart if the Gospel, the first commandment, to not have any other gods (idols).
Lewis can teach us how to have eyes and hearts to see, understand, and marvel in the works of God and honor Him through them. we can use creation as the sunbeam along which we look at God.
His was a rare mind. His thoughts on the pleasures and delights of man from "Weight of Glory" and "Reflections on the Psalms" (chapter: a few words about praise) were enough to propel Piper to his wondrous ability to explain what he calls "Christian Hedonism", expounding on the catechism 'the chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever', stating that 'God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him'. Is that not the heart if the Gospel, the first commandment, to not have any other gods (idols).
Lewis can teach us how to have eyes and hearts to see, understand, and marvel in the works of God and honor Him through them. we can use creation as the sunbeam along which we look at God.
April 1, 2014
This is a collection of short gleanings (and one long section) from John Piper's works that mention C.S. Lewis. Piper regards this little ebook as a testament to Lewis' influence on his own thinking, even as he disagrees with some of Lewis' theology. Certainly, Lewis' penchant for joy is palpable on the pages (GKC gets a shoutout too - yeehaw!). However, nearly half of the book is taken up by "The Creation: Wielding the World for Joy's Sake" which barely mentions Lewis at all. Piper's teachings aside (and one can have qualms about some of his points), the book is supposed to be representative of Lewis' influence but that long extract could have been pared down as it has but a hint of Lewis in it. Although it's a free ebook, this seems like a project designed to get public attention off of Lewis' name.
October 6, 2016
I enjoy John Piper's sermons and writing, and I enjoyed this short book on Lewis, but was left feeling that parts of it were scattered. Some of the chapters didn't work well together and it was distracting.
With the one negative out of the way, Piper gives an in depth look at the little concepts that C.S. Lewis was so good at illuminating. He could take little things and make them seem brilliant. And they are brilliant because they come directly from God. Lewis had a great way of seeing these things that most people, even Christians, typically don't. The book is great, it just took more effort to read than necessary.
With the one negative out of the way, Piper gives an in depth look at the little concepts that C.S. Lewis was so good at illuminating. He could take little things and make them seem brilliant. And they are brilliant because they come directly from God. Lewis had a great way of seeing these things that most people, even Christians, typically don't. The book is great, it just took more effort to read than necessary.
January 4, 2016
Anyone looking for a taste of Piper's work should read "Alive to Wonder". It's short (only 78 pages!) but soaked with a love for the Lord and alive to all the wonder He has given us in this life from the first page of the introduction! It's not a biography of Lewis as much as it is a reflection by John Piper on Lewis' influence in the way he walks with Christ and is supplemented by lovely excerpts from Lewis as well as other John Piper works in which he has used CS Lewis' words. There's a free ebook on desiringgod so why not read it?
March 6, 2021
Piper isn't exactly pointed in his writings, they are often circular. Let me fix that last sentence, he has a point, but he expresses it with a lot of repetition (hence, circular). By repeating himself he often kills a good thing, his original point. Now, with Lewis that's hard to do, and Piper actually succeeds at doing an overall good job, but this is his third book on Lewis, and enough is enough! They are all good, at a decent-level sort of good, but none stand out because they are just overrun with Piper's (pompous) overkill! (Forgive me if I seem grouchy, it's inexcusable.)
January 30, 2015
This book is John Piper´s tribute to C.S. Lewis´s works.
Three points stand out from the book:
1. Men are too easily pleased. Thus we are pleased with food, music, nature. At the end it is with God himself that we should be pleased. Creation is simply a hint to the glory of God.
God is most satisfied in us when we are most satisfied in Him.
2.God is happy
3. We need to make our body fit to see and proclaim the glory of God through creation and everything that surrounds us.
Three points stand out from the book:
1. Men are too easily pleased. Thus we are pleased with food, music, nature. At the end it is with God himself that we should be pleased. Creation is simply a hint to the glory of God.
God is most satisfied in us when we are most satisfied in Him.
2.God is happy
3. We need to make our body fit to see and proclaim the glory of God through creation and everything that surrounds us.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 23, 2015
Great little book by Piper celebrating the influence of Lewis in his life.
“The freedom of God consists in the fact that no cause other than himself produces his acts and no external obstacle impedes them—that his own goodness is the root from which they all grow and his own omnipotence the air in which they all flower.” C.S. Lewis
“The freedom of God consists in the fact that no cause other than himself produces his acts and no external obstacle impedes them—that his own goodness is the root from which they all grow and his own omnipotence the air in which they all flower.” C.S. Lewis
May 25, 2015
Really enjoyed it but to be honest I would have enjoyed a little more Lewis. I don't know if that makes sense but I just thought he referenced a small portion of Lewis and give his own commentary and quotes from Edwards, Spurgeon, and many more; and I would have just enjoyed seeing him try and make his point by stringing more of Lewis' thoughts together from his different works
August 8, 2015
Collection of excerpts from various other works of Piper's, on the subject of the influence of C.S. Lewis. A good foretaste, though I'm guessing not as much impact as the whole originals. This is the first book of Piper's I have read, but will probably not be the last.
June 9, 2013
Great interesting book to read!
June 21, 2013
Quick, great read. Great quotes. It is free for download at the Desiring God sight.
Want to read
March 23, 2014Reading in preparation for the Desiring God National Conference at the End of September, 2013.
October 2, 2013
A sweet compilation of Dr. Piper's writings influenced by Lewis.
December 7, 2013
Good quick read. Sort of a "Greatest hits of Piper 's writings influenced by Lewis"
May 21, 2015
Piper writes a very honest portrayal of Lewis. It is a good, brief presentation of why Lewis is still so popular.
October 3, 2015
It is a short and easier to read book. John Piper portraits C. S. Lewis in a very magnificent way.
May 26, 2015
Great little collection of essays on one of my favorite authors.
Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews